Liverpool Strength of Character Downs Man United

In a hotly charged atmosphere, both sides started with a high intensity.  Gerrard leading the midfield with his comrade in arms Jamie Carragher occupying the holding role with Dalglish obviously looking for an experience head in a key position with Adam struggling manfully failing to cope with the defensive side.  Whether  a younger player may have been a better option with Man United fluid movement is open to debate, but in my opinion he should not have been the choice, but the lack of depth is very apparent with Dalglish wanting to rest players with three games such a short space of time.

Liverpool failed to contain the movement of Man United’s freewheeling midfield which at  every turn allowed them to spread the ball wide, especially to Valencia, who almost put the away side ahead  with a rasping drive which smacked against the post.  Liverpool also enjoyed some early joy with Maxi’s own long range-drive palmed away.

Liverpool targeted De Gea’s perceived weakness in the air and while Carroll kept him busy Agger sauntered in to header relatively unchallenged sending the crowd into hoops of ecstasy against the run of play.

The holding player’s job is not only to make tackles and intercept, but to keep the side moving for that has never been Carragher’s forte and sadly for such a great servant of the club, he resembled a fish out of water.  He invariably sat back reverting to type as a defender losing key possession rather than holding on to the ball and with Enrique having one of his poorest games of the season possession was thrown away.  Liverpool seemed happy have Man United come on to them parodying the first leg of the Carling Cup game with Man City, but with over 60 per cent possession in the first-half, Man United eventually equalised when Enrique was half committed in the tackle allowing De Silva to get beyond him and cross and with Carragher failing to track Park there was only ever going to be one result.
 
Liverpool continued to look disjointed in the second period with no real support for the ‘big man’ up front and the midfield unable to get a grip on Scholes and Giggs. It came as no surprise to see Maxi and Carragher who had struggled respectively with the pace of the game substituted with Adam and Kuyt coming on.  Steve Gerrard, seemingly feeling the affects of multiple games was not at his most effervescent and was unsurprisingly hooked with Craig Bellamy replacing him.

The change in personnel changed the course of the match with an increase in urgency giving Man United less time to move the ball at their wont and cut of the supply chain to Giggs and Valencia which had been their main mode of attack.

Andy Carroll worked tirelessly throughout, ploughing a lone furrow upfront with very little support and it was to his credit that it was his was his superb flick on which Kuyt ran on to volley the ball unmercilessly past De Gea to give Liverpool the upper hand and send the Anfield faithful, as it had been three days earlier, into delirium.  His fine performance was almost deservedly capped when his header from Downing’s looped cross smashed against the bar from an acute angle with Kuyt missing the follow-up.  Kuyt, the club’s ‘Duracell Bunny’ seems to have found his recharger in the last two games and begun to resemble his old super charged self.

Dirk Kuyt volleys home the winner (picture/AFP)

Liverpool showed heart in abundance and while the manager’s hand may have been forced with three games on top of each other and a trip to Wolves on the horizon in three days time, we handed Man United the initiative to easily. But to the team’s credit they thought hard and restricted Man United to long rang efforts after their equaliser and kept them searching for their first win at Anfield since 2007.

As an aside, although not unexpected, it was disappointing to hear the Anfield crowd continued booing of Evra right through the match.  It showed our fans in a bad light and also highlights a lack of understanding about the situation when understanding and appreciation has always been their watchword.

Kop Post Man of The Match: Daniel Agger: Put his body on the line time and again with last ditch tackles and ran the ball out of defence and into midfield in inimitable fashion.